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Cold Mountain Customer Reviews (1 - 3 of 87 Reviews)

Ugly Violence
Cold Mountain, a place in Western North Carolina is no fun. Life is harsh for country farmers, and cold-blooded locals. Sure, it's beautiful to look at through the mist as long as you're not starving to death, being raped, or murdered. I thought I'd let potential viewers know ahead of time before they think they are going to see a romantic period piece for chicks: Cold Mountain is brutal with violence and sexual abuse. Most of the offending scenes are unnecessary for the telling of a "Saga." I have no idea why Minghella felt it imperative to show Hollywood blood and skin every other scene. Well, I know why. The director has these fantasies and he wants everyone to understand.

A saga is a long story of adventures and side plots that finally climax in a truth so ironic that audiences can't sleep at night thinking of the terrible drama and unrequited love. Think Lawrence of Arabia, Doctor Zhivago, or Gone With the Wind. Speaking of GWTW: isn't Cold Mountain kind of a crude remake of that chestnut. For the most part, Jude Law, Nicole Kidman, and especially Renee Zellweger are awful with their dialect; in fact, they are all over the language map, and these inflections kill those moments of human suffering, erupting a giggle to the viewer's throat.

I wonder if the relationship between Zellweger's can-do Feminism and Kidman's old fashioned Southern Belle is a commentary or debate that didn't actually take place for a hundred years. Feminism is an outgrowth of birth control and Socialism. Empower the woman and there'd be no war. All would cooperate as women do as workers. Men are beasts etc. You see what I mean. None of these ideas pounded upon by our screenplay and director would come to fruition for a Century, so why not try to get with accuracy a slice of history.

Recreated, The Crater, a true debacle of history is truthful to a point, but after the Union soldiers are trapped in the hole, did the Confederates jump in too? I read Bruce Canton's account, and I can assure you the Confederates fired down into the pit with no need for hand-to-hand combat. The same may be said about the National Guard portrayal. Films about the Civil War give the impression that every able-bodied man joined the army. This was not true. Legions of men stayed home and society itself, law and order, remained for the most part. Now I won't argue with oral history. If somewhere in North Carolina, the locals became abusive to their own people: so be it, but CM makes the villains cardboard without character development, so I was left with cheap prurient emotion. I felt the need to bathe.


"I Came Back to You"
Cold Mountain's chief appeal lies in the absolutely beautiful scenery and cinematography, and the love story between Ada, a preacher's daughter, and Inman, a Confederate soldier. Filmed in the mountains of Romania, North and South Carolina, and Virgina, it is a relaxing pleasure to watch the seasons and the unspoiled beauty of nature. It seems to have been the filmaker's goal to return to a pristine time before the environment became ravaged.

Indeed, watching Cold Mountain is like stepping back in time, watching the horrors of the Civil War unfold in the South. The acting of the stellar cast is impeccable. The film is long, and moves slowly, but is a treat for romance lovers or history buffs.

i thought anthony minghella was incapable of making a worse movie than "the english patient" ...
oops, mine bad!

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